Written by: Bob Colling
World Championship Wrestling presents Saturday Night
Date: 3/14/1998
From: Johnstown, PA
Matches:
1.) Glacier fought Chris Adams to a double count-out
2.) Juventud Guerrera, Super Calo & Ciclope defeated Silver King, Vilano IV, & Vilano V
3.) Bill Goldberg defeated Chase Tatum
4.) High Voltage defeated Disorderly Conduct
5.) Ernest Miller defeated Psychosis
6.) Raven & Perry Saturn defeated Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom
7.) La Parka defeated Lenny Lane
8.) Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko defeated WCW Cruiserweight Champion Chris Jericho & Chavo Guerrero Jr.
9.) Rick Steiner defeated Vincent
10.) Curt Hennig & Brian Adams defeated Davey Boy Smith & Jim Neidhart
Angle Developments/Notes:
1.) Glacier doesn’t waste any time going right after Adams to start the match hitting a chop to knock Adams off his feet. Glacier taunts the fans but is tripped and Adams hammers away on Glacier. Adams sends Glacier to the floor and hits a suicide dive! Adams continues to pummels Glacier on the floor and plays to the crowd briefly. Glacier sends Adams back first into the guard railing. Glacier continues to strike Adams on the floor and slams Chris face first onto the apron. Glacier misses a big boot and hits railing hitting groin first. Adams hits Glacier with a wooden chair over the knee and begins to stomp on Glacier’s injured left knee. Adams puts Glacier in the tree of woe and begins to hammer the injured leg. Adams delivers a super kick to the injured leg of Glacier! Adams sends Glacier to the floor and they hit super kicks at the same time knocking each other out. That results in a double count-out to end the match. (*1/2. Sure, the finish is a lame one but I find myself enjoying a feud primarily on the C level program. I like Adams intensity and Glacier has been playing a good cowardly heel.)
2.) Raven cut a promo from somewhere backstage, I think. He talks about fate being a curious beast. You can’t escape fate. Raven talks about how Benoit and DDP are supposedly united. His grand plan is coming to reality and it has led to fighting. Raven says they will do his bidding tomorrow night at Uncensored. Raven will be there to pickup the pieces and he will win the WCW United States Championship.
3.) Malenko and Guerrero start the match with Malenko taking Guerrero down to the canvas but Chavo got out of the holds. Guerrero takes Malenko over with a head scissors takedown but Jericho avoids a tag from Chavo on the apron. Benoit is now in the match and gets taken down by Guerrero with a snap mare but Jericho gets tagged in. Jericho isn’t happy about that and is met with a chop from Benoit. Benoit hits a German suplex after a dropkick from Malenko and Chavo avoids a tag from Jericho. Benoit backdrops Jericho and Malenko gets tagged in and Dean drops Jericho with a heel kick for a near fall. Malenko drives Jericho down with a vertical suplex. Jericho avoids a dropkick but can’t lock in the Liontamer. Jericho kicks Malenko down on the knee and focuses his offense on the knee. Jericho attempts a vertical suplex but Malenko counters a takedown and locks in a STF before tagging in Benoit.
Benoit enters the match and stomps away on Jericho. Benoit continues to work over Jericho with chops for a near fall. Malenko tags into the match and works over Jericho until Chris scoops alms Malenko followed by a springboard moonsault for a near fall. Jericho knee lifts Malenko several times and chops Malenko in the corner. Dean avoids Jericho in the corner and goes to the top but Jericho cuts him off looking for and hitting a superplex a near fall. Guerrero gets tagged in and Chavo cleans house with dropkicks. Dean knocks Jericho off the apron and soon locks in the Texas Cloverleaf to force Guerrero to tap out. (**1/2. I thought this was a nicely paced match and Jericho was entertaining in his heel role here. Guerrero was always the job guy for the match so the outcome wasn’t surprising at all.)
4.) Smith and Hennig start the main event with Smith shoulder blocking Hennig and tags in Neidhart to keep control of the bout. Neidhart hip tosses Hennig out of the corner and delivers a few overhand strikes. Adams gets tagged in to try his luck against Smith. Smith ducks a big boot and clotheslines Adams followed by a vertical suplex. Neidhart tags in but gets kicked by Adams. Neidhart avoids a splash in the corner and clotheslines Adams before tagging in Smith. Adams plants Smith a piledriver for a near fall. Hennig tags in hitting an axe handle off the middle rope to drop Smith to the canvas. Hennig hits a rolling neck snap on Bulldog and double teams Smith along with Adams. Adams locks in a bear hug before driving Smith down to the mat with a spine buster. Hennig tags in and wrenches on the knee of Smith until Neidhart delivers a shot from behind to help his partner.
Adams delivers a back breaker on Smith and leaps off the middle rope missing a fist drop. Neidhart tags in and hammers away on Adams and Hennig in the corner. Neidhart scoop slams Adams but an eye rake stops him. Hennig tags in and is decked by Neidhart numerous times in the corner. Hennig flips out of the corner and Neidhrt continues to work over Hennig with strikes. All four men are going at it in the ring until Adams hits Neidhart from the apron and Hennig manages to hit the Hennig Plex on Neidhart for the victory. (*1/2. If you were expecting a classic tag match then you’d be awfully disappointed. This was just four veterans putting together a seven minute match and trying to not do a lot.)
Final Thoughts:
It’s a strong episode for Saturday Night as we got a few matches involving notable names and the feud between Glacier and Adams was highlighted. I enjoyed the show this week.
Thanks for reading.